A Note From Colleen

Hi, friend.

I’m a huge fan of creating your online business around doing something you love. If you’re going to put in the effort you should enjoy what you’re doing.

This could mean turning a hobby into a business, but…

This week we’re chatting about the difference between a hobby and a business because a hobby can become a business, but then it’s no longer a hobby. It’s a business. It’s important to understand the difference.

Thanks for being here.

Cheers,

Colleen Kochannek, Publisher

*This publication may include affiliate links and links to products I sell. If you click and buy, I may earn revenue and/or commission. 

BUSINESS BASICS

HOBBY VS. BUSINESS

So, you want to turn a hobby into a business. Good for you. Doing something you enjoy makes the work easier, especially on the challenging days.

I often find our expertise runs deep with a hobby. When you choose to spend your time doing something, and you do it often, you gain a lot of experience that you can share and monetize.

But, do you really want to transition your hobby into a business? Let’s chat about the difference:

1. Escape: A hobby is an escape. It’s important to understand that when you turn it into a business you are giving up this ‘escape’ in exchange for profit.

2. Your Way: With a hobby, you get to do things your way. When your hobby becomes a business, you do what the customers want. Let’s say painting dog portraits is the hobby that you turn into a business. Customers start asking for cat portraits. You paint cats.

3. Time Commitment/ Planning: You can leave your hobby in the closet for weeks, months or even years at a time. A business requires consistent, persistent, deliberate attention. If you ignore your business for a period of time you’ll go broke… fast.

4. Sales and Marketing: As soon as your hobby becomes a business, you’ll need to market and sell. Hobbies don’t require promotion.  

5. Scaling: With a hobby, it’s typically just you doing ‘the thing’. In business the goal is to scale and grow. It may not be possible to ‘do enough’ of your hobby (aka have enough product or time)  to make it a business without hiring a team. 

6. Record keeping and administration: With a business you’ll need to ‘keep numbers’ (pesky taxes 😁), establish yourself as a legal entity and put business systems in place.

7. Numbers and Profit: In some instances, the numbers don’t make sense to turn a hobby into business, especially if your hobby is a handmade craft (although there is a solution).

As an example for handmade crafts: 

I am a needlepointer, but I could NEVER stitch and sell needlepoint Christmas ornaments as a business.

Why? The numbers don’t work.

Supplies and finishing: Professionally hand-painted canvas (~$70), threads (~$30), professional finishing a stitched canvas into actual ornament ($75).

Time: Hours and hours and hours 😃 Let’s guesstimate 8 hours to stitch a typical 4” Christmas ornament.

Investment: On average, I have $175 invested in one finished Christmas ornament to hang on my tree - just supplies and finishing. No time accounted for.

Price: What would I have to sell one ornament for in order to turn a profit? Let’s look at a sale price of $300.

$300 (sale price) - $175 (supplies and finishing) = $125

$125 / 8 hours = $15/hour.

The numbers don’t work.

Also, keep in mind, I’d be stitching 8 hours per day. And, how many ornaments can I realistically make in a month?

Lastly, I can’t imagine anyone paying $300 for one Christmas ornament.

Bottom line: For any hobby you want to consider as a business take into account all of the factors I mention above and run the numbers so you know that your hobby is scalable and the numbers work.

NOTE: What’s the solution if you do want to turn your handmade hobby into a business? How do you make the numbers work?

TEACH. Create a course and teach people HOW to do the thing. This is 100% scalable. In fact, this goes for handmade and all hobbies!

LIFE REIMAGINED

I love getting older. I’m much bolder about saying ‘NO’ to so many things I used to say ‘YES’ to. And, I’m learning to say ‘YES’ to things I wouldn’t have imagined just a few short years ago.

A few things I am saying YES to:

• Hiring a personal trainer because I’ve accepted I just don’t have the willpower to do it on my own. Paying someone is what motivates me.

• Going to bed at 8pm without guilt. I love to sleep. I no longer feel bad about crawling into bed early with my Trixie and pretending I’m going to read when I know darn well I won’t.

• Doing things solo - like I’ve just signed up for a cooking class. I imagine it will mostly be couples, but that’s okay.

• Journaling every morning. It’s actually become a habit (and I’m not one of these ‘create a morning ritural’ kind of people). It’s helping me. I feel less stressed. More energized. Clearer in my ideas. More excited for my work. Hopeful for my future. So much gratitude.

The list of ‘NO’s’ is too long for this newsletter, but suffice it say I say ‘NO’ to rude people and anything I don’t WANT to do. Gone are the days of feeling ‘pressure’ to say YES so I don’t hurt feelings or offend someone. 🤣 

What about you? What are you saying YES and NO to these days? Hit Reply and let me know. I know as we get older we get so much bolder and more interesting. I want to hear what you’re getting into.

QUICK WINS

Keep a ‘LINK LIST’ to keep your business organized.

Yes, I have a Google doc with ‘links’ to all things in my business:

• Links to each of my social media accounts

• Links to sales pages

• Links to each of my lead magnet pages

• Links to ‘Subscribe Here’ pages (like to The Gumption Gazette subscribe page

• Links to important documents

I refer to this LINK LIST daily. In fact, it’s usually one of the (dozen) tabs open on my computer at any given time.

It saves me so much time. I don’t have to log into Facebook, go to my group, and copy the link if I want to invite someone to join. I just go to the link list and copy/paste.

Note: I keep a separate LINK LIST for each of my affiliate links so I can share those easily, too.

I suspect there’s a more tech-forward way of doing this, but the Google Doc LINK LIST works for me.

WTHWW - WHATEVER THE HECK WE WANT

I want to bring back 80’s TV.

I binge watched Hart to Hart last night (Yep, it was a hot Saturday night around these parts 🤣). Remember that show? With Mr. Hart, a millionaire, which sounds funny alongside today’s billionaires; Max, a butler who could do literally everything; and, of course, Freeway, the dog.

Everything was just more genteel back then.

Even the murders were nicer. I know that sounds ridiculous, but technology has enabled TV these days to be too real.

And, Stephanie Power’s hair?!? Come on. It was fabulous. I was always jealous of the 80’s ‘big hair’. My baby fine hair could never…

What show would you want to see make a comeback? Hit Reply. Let’s talk about 80’s TV.

BEHIND THE SCENES (Bonus Content)

I’m working on my new Pilot to Profit Start School program. I have a super detailed outline, but not the whole program created in advance.

I am teaching it ‘live’ this first round. Here’s why:

1. It’s impossible to get all of the details right directly out of the gate.

2. Teaching ‘live’ lets me see from my students’ perspective more clearly. Once we know something really well it can be hard to see it as a beginner again.

3. It’s hard to know how to ‘pace’ lessons before you’ve taught the topic. By teaching ‘live’ I can go at a pace most comfortable for my students.

4. I don’t have to stress about having ‘it all done upfront’. Content creation is a LOT of work and so much easier if I can space out the process.

5. I can use student questions to inform next lessons.

6. I can tweak as we go. Students will have a much better, personalized experience. It’s about getting results!

7. I get to experience what the students are experiencing. Sometimes creating ‘in a bubble’ doesn’t translate. We have to step into the other person’s shoes.

8. I’ll ‘finalize’ lessons after I’ve taught them with real students. I can fill in any gaps I may have missed, address information around questions that came up frequently; and, make sure each lesson is clear and thorough - without fluff.

9. I get to be WITH my students. I love connecting with the women in my audience. This is a collaborative experience. We can lift each other up. Cheer each other on. Celebrate all the wins and successes.

If you’re considering creating a course or program, know you don’t have to do it all upfront. Have a solid outline and tweak and build as you go. In fact, I’d highly recommend this model.

PILOT TO PROFIT - COMING NEXT WEEK!

What if you could learn how to make money online while making money online?

The Pilot to Profit Startup School curriculum:

1. Uncover your valuable experience and expertise you can monetize

2. Refine your expertise into a sellable model

3. Create your first downloadable digital product in Canva (yes, I’ll teach you Canva, too) 

4. Set up your first sales funnel in Stan.Store (I’ll teach you click-by-click, step-by-step)

5. Create and launch your first simple marketing plan (on Facebook - no ad spend needed)

6. Get your first sale!

Waitlisters will have a special price.

Get on the WAITLIST here. 

COMING IN NEXT WEEK’S EDITION

Running the numbers: The time and money required to start and run an online business

The SUGGESTION BOX

Questions and suggestions for admin or the Ask-Me-Anything section. Simple Hit REPLY to this email or email us at: [email protected]